At first I could not believe my eyes.
So I started at the beginning and re-read the article in the local news paper of 11th January 2016. I read most carefully, so as not to misinterpret anything reported therein:
So I started at the beginning and re-read the article in the local news paper of 11th January 2016. I read most carefully, so as not to misinterpret anything reported therein:
There is a food chain in Austria,
called “Spar” with outlets almost everywhere. A regular food
supermarket, trying to satisfy every taste.
The management of this chain noted that
Vienna housed many Muslims in certain districts which might make it
profitable for Spar and comfortable shopping for the adherents to the
Muslim Faith, to carry on its shelves food items prepared in
accordance with Islamic rules.
Products, such as meats, must be
prepared in accordance with the rules of “Halal” (permissible).
(Members of the Jewish persuasion
prefer to shop in stores which offer “Kosher” items.)
Spar did, however, not count on the
bigoted and narrow-minded nature of many Austrians.
A storm of protests rained down on
Spar, obviously from people who thought it inappropriate to cater to
a group of persons whose religious convictions differed from their
own.
The usual low-intelligence, primitive
and hate filled outcries:
“If they want special treatment, they should go home, where they came from. There they can get all the Halal they want.” could be read on the Internet and heard during discussions in the Coffey-shops.
“If they want special treatment, they should go home, where they came from. There they can get all the Halal they want.” could be read on the Internet and heard during discussions in the Coffey-shops.
If Spar, or any other provider of foods
and sundry items wishes to cater to a special group, why should any
one object ? What harm does it do to anybody else ? Is it really any
skin off their nose ?
Of course not.
These protests do not come from any
reasonable thinking persons, but from those so hate-filled, so full
of Islamophobia or, in fact, Xenophobia that they will not tolerate
any variance from their own life style.
As if this were not enough, the banking
institute “Bawag”, also in an effort to cater to the preferences
of about 600,000 Muslims living in Austria, introduced special
accounts which neither charge, nor pay interest, since this practice
does not correspond with Islamic financial rules.
Instead of the calculation of interest,
fixed fees in varying amounts are being charged or paid which
satisfies their rules.
An absolute storm of protest rained
down upon Bawag, again mainly through the Internet with comments like
these:
“This constitutes the first step in
the total Islamisation of Europe” and
“this is the saddest day in the
History of Austrian Banking.” and
“given that this Bank bows down to
the demands of religious minorities, I shall at once close my account
there.
It seems that statements like the above
again emanate not from a clear thinking person's careful
considerations, but from the addled minds of haters of all that is
not their own.
I regret to have to report that the
first mentioned Spar has abandoned their effort to carry “Halal” foods on their shelves.
I am, however, still convinced that
such prejudice-laden and xenophobic comments come from a minority of
Austrians and that the majority of Austrian citizens are more clear
thinking and more tolerant.
This is the fervently expressed hope of
Bertstravels
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